Steam now offers the promised free release of an updated version of Alien Swarm, which includes the complete code base for the game. They say: "Available free of charge, the game thrusts players into an epic bug hunt featuring a unique blend of co-op play and squad-level tactics. Along with the game get the complete code base for Alien Swarm that features updates to the Source engine as well as the SDK."

My first time, in the first mission, I was on the elevator and hit the 'G' key, thinking this was going to launch a grenade or something at all the critters climbing up the shaft, but as it turns out, that is the throw-your-gun-off-the-elevator button. Don't be quick to judge though, it's all just part of the grand strategy, you see.

My first time, in the first mission, I was on the elevator and hit the 'G' key, thinking this was going to launch a grenade or something at all the critters climbing up the shaft, but as it turns out, that is the throw-your-gun-off-the-elevator button. Don't be quick to judge though, it's all just part of the grand strategy, you see.

_________________________________________________"Money doesn't exist in the 24th century, the acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives. We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity." - Jean-Luc Picard

ASeven wrote on Jul 19, 2010, 19:25:So, anyone has the game? How is it?

I just played for a few minutes in a public server to get a feel for the game and I had a blast. Runs smooth as silk, easy on the eyes and just, well, plays well. Gonna be on for a little while if anyone wants to play, just add me (see my sig).

I've heard the game is short and doesn't have many campaigns, however since the SDK was included I'm not worried, in no time a lot more campaigns and levels will show up. In fact I think this game is aimed at modders since people who have it are saying the game is really short, it's almost as if Valve is inviting people to create content for it.

ASeven wrote on Jul 19, 2010, 19:25:So, anyone has the game? How is it?

I just played for a few minutes in a public server to get a feel for the game and I had a blast. Runs smooth as silk, easy on the eyes and just, well, plays well. Gonna be on for a little while if anyone wants to play, just add me (see my sig).

Same here and that happen now way to much after announcing updates and release... There was a time they was able to handle all the load, I was usually downloading at 900KB/s but now I must wait a few hours (this often mean the next day) to be able to complete an update and this suck when it happen on an evening when just when I sit in front of the computer to play.

I guess the people complaining have never heard the phrase "you get what you pay for." Complaints about immediate availability (and anything, for that matter) don't really matter if it's free and will continue to be free. I've got it downloading now after badgering Steam a bunch, but if you enjoyed Steam's last big sale as much as I did, you won't get around to playing it for a few days either. If you don't want to wait, don't. It'd be an entirely different and legitimate matter if you bought a Steam game with real money and couldn't get it to go right away, but I really have no sympathy when it's free for everyone.

KilrathiAce wrote on Jul 19, 2010, 18:08:I have been begging valve on their forums for the game to have preload option for this game available, but Valve seem to have no idea how to plan ahead on their steam system.

First of all, they release this free game (2gb) at peak steam concurrent usage time(within 1 hour). Steam website has a graph showing daily concurrent usage stats, and if u look at past number of days you can see that the time this game was released is about the peak usage time every day.

Second, Valve did not offer preload option for this game which shows total disregard for their system load and for their users. Had they started to offer preload few days earlier at time when user load is lowest this would relieve a lot of bandwith load over time. Why? because less users would start to download instantly at preload due to the time it was put up and people normally don't rush to download something that you cannot play upon finishing.

Many people cannot start the download or their download is crawling because Valve failed to use common sense.

Stop bitching and set your client to DL from another region. Japan for instance.